How our independence is protected

We describe our work as independent and non-partisan. Those words only mean something if they are backed by procedures a reader can inspect.

What independence means here

• Disclosed funding. Every report states who funded it. Funders see findings at the same time as the public, not before.
• No sign-off on conclusions. A commissioning body can check facts for accuracy; it cannot change a conclusion it dislikes.
• The right to publish. Our standard terms retain the right to publish methods and results, including inconvenient ones.

Where the limits are

Independence is not the absence of funding; it is the management of it. We are candid that any funded body has incentives, and the safeguard is disclosure and external review rather than a claim of purity.

Peer review and external advisers sit outside the funding relationship for exactly this reason. When a reviewer and a funder disagree, the review governs. We would rather lose a commission than a reader's trust in the finding.